YUAA Prototype Rocket Launch

The Yale Undergraduate Aerospace Organization’s (YUAA) Rocket Competition Team has spent the past week finishing their seven foot prototype rocket, Artemis, in the CEID. Artemis will fly to 6000 feet using a K570 solid fuel motor at the CTRA launch in upstate New York. Among other things, Artemis is meant to test the payload deployment system for the rocket which will fly at a competition early in the summer. This prototype will carry a GoPro which will take footage of its descent.

The team has been preparing for this process throughout the term by constructing rockets on RockSim, practicing carbon fiber layups, and building small test rockets. Many of the members joined the team with no engineering experience, but since have designed and built Artemis’s body and electrical components. The airframe is composed of cardboard tubes which have been reinforced by a Easyglas sock and epoxy, and the fins and other parts were laser cut in the CEID.

Bolun Lui ‘16, the leader of the team, expressed that they are extremely grateful for the CEID. Not only does it offer valuable resources such as the laser cutter, but it also provides an invaluable meeting space. The CEID allows YUAA, an organization of almost fifty people, to be a cohesive community of friends and aerospace enthusiasts.